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Emülas
Emülas (ɛmuːlas), translated as Moonspeech is a lingua franca spoken by the various races that inhabit the Realmworld. By far the largest spoken language in the world, the exact number of speakers of Emülas is unknown but is in the region of hundreds of millions. Emülas is known as the 'language of magic' as it is the direct language of which all spells derive their incantations from. Devised by the gods in the Age of Heroes as a means to create unity among the peoples of the Realmworld, the language fell out of use during the Great Spelldrought. The tongue was rediscovered by the Order of the Burning Lotus and served as the main language of use for the order's members before eventually being reintroduced to the world at large through the scholars at Hightown. It is a predominantly prefixing agglutinative language which has various polysynthetic tendencies. General Emülas is a non-noun-incorporating polysynthetic-agglutinative language. The language is strongly head-initial. The language is almost entirely suffixing. Word order is generally SVO however as nouns can decline by object, word order can be changed around. Emülas is heavily dependent on noun declensions, having over fifty cases, four numbers, and four genders. Nouns also decline for possession. Verbs conjugate for apsect, tense, number and mood, however not for voice or person. History Phonology Consonants *the phoneme /v/ becomes /w/ after a consonant *when the phonemes /p, b, m, n/ are followed by /h/ they become aspirated Clusters In general, large consonant clusters are avoided in Emülas and only clusters of two consonants are allowed before a vowel must be present. Initial consonant clusters are limited to /kw, gw, dw, tw, nw, mw, pw, bw, lw, sv, kj, dj, tj, nj, mj, sj, gl/. Medially between vowels a larger number of consonant clusters may exist. Vowels Diphthongs Emülas has seven diphthongs (eulaï): /iu, eu, ea, ai, au, oi, ui/. All of these are falling, except for /iu/ which is rising. Long diphthongs can also occur, namely: /iü, eü, eä, aï, aü, oï, uï/. It should be noted that on long diphthongs, only the final vowel sound is lengthened. Orthography Stress In Emülas the stressing of a syllable is predictable and non-phonemic but it is partly determined by syllable weight. Words of two syllables are stressed on the first syllable. In words of three or more syllables, the stress is on the penultimate syllable if this is heavy, otherwise on the third last syllable. In Emülas, heavy syllables are syllables that contain either a long vowel, a diphthong, or a cluster of two consonants. The placement of stress and the distinction between heavy and light syllables is important in Emülas verse. Grammar Noun Gender There are four genders (huren) in Emülas; *earth (teghor huren) *air (hwevyn huren) *fire (agna huren) *water (zhus huren) As a general principle, most earth nouns end in '-r', most air nouns end in '-n', most fire nouns end in a vowel, and most water nouns end in '-s', although there are a significant number of exceptions to this guideline based on other noun declensions. Each gender also has appears to have a preferred vowel, so many earth nouns end in '-or', many air nouns end in '-yn', many fire nouns end in '-a', and many water nouns end in '-us'. This is far from absolute however. There is no exact equivalence between the genders and semantic categories, but there are some general tendencies: *Words for human beings are most often earth or fire: valor "man," vala '"woman," '''mhysa '"mother," 'padhor '"father," 'aiqsor '"teacher," 'tyro '"student," etc. *Words for terrestrial animals are generally earth: 'uxhor '"bear," 'hwundor '"dog," etc. *Words for aquatic or semi-aquatic animals are generally water: 'nimus '"fish," etc. *Words for birds are generally air: 'mhebyn '"bird (general)," 'aksyn '"owl," 'falxyn '"falcon," etc. *Words for pets are generally fire: 'qimja '"cat," 'lhenxu '"rabbit," etc. *Words for occupations are generally earth: 'azantyr '"soldier," 'dasor '"king," 'lhysör '"priest," etc. *Words for body parts are generally water: 'deqos '"foot," 'aros '"arm," 'noghus '"hair," 'mus '"face," etc. *Words for intangible ideas are generally air: 'amoren '"love," 'varyn '"power," 'qenöbyn '"hope," etc. *Words for physical phenomena are generally earth: 'ypor '"mountain," '''feldor "glen," ondor "stone," etc. *Words for liquids and bodies thereof are frequently water: zhus '''"water," '''roshtes "blood," särus '"wine," etc. Case Nouns in Emülas can be inflected for over fifty different cases. The large number of cases in the language elimantes the need for adpositions. The cases are listed as: *'Nominative '- The grammatical subject of a sentence. The nominative singular is the basic, uninflected form of the noun and has no special ending. An example of the nominative is in the sentence "i ''nixa lomis." - "the night is passing." *'Accusative '- The direct object of a verb. A noun in the accusative ends in '''-l regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the accusative, the final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-l'. An example of the accusative is in the sentence "mhebyl nurhis i qimja." - "the cat stalks a bird." *'Dative '- The indirect object of a verb. A noun in the dative ends in '-dh' regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the dative, the final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-dh'. An example of the dative is in the sentence "i valor ympashid toghol i hwundodh" - "the man gave a bone to the dog." *'Genitive '- To mark the possession of a noun, used to express words with respect to "of" in English. Genitives usually come directly after the possessed noun. To inflect a noun for the genitive, the final vowel and consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-o' in earth, air and water nouns, and '-aï '''in fire nouns. An example of the genative is in the sentence "ä thonid i vaghol ''tadhalo" - "I saw the gates of a city." *'Instrumental '- To mark the instrument with which an action is accomplished. A noun in the instrumental ends in '-th' regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the instrumental, the final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-th'. An example of the instrumental is in the sentence "i valor matid nuxol siqloth." - "the man ate meat with a knife." *'Carative '- To mark an action taking place without the use of an object. A noun in the carative ends in '-vez' regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the carative, the final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-vez'. An example of the carative is in the sentence "i vala matid nuxol siqlovez." - "the woman ate meat without a knife." *'Benefactive '- To mark the nouns that are the beneficiary of an action, used to express words with respect to "for" in English. A noun in the benefactive ends in '-g' regardless of gende. Thus to inflect a noun for the benefactive, the final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-g'. An example of the benefactive is in the sentence "ä'nsid ves elenodh istameg." - "I gave you a book for school." *'Malefactive '- To mark nouns that are negatively affected by an action. A noun in the malefactive ends in '-x '''regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the malefactive, the final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-x'. An example of the malefactive is in the sentence "i nhoqus morghid ''valox." - "the horse died on the man." *'Vocative '- To address someone directly. A noun in the vocative ends in a vowel''' regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the vocative, drop the final consonant (or consonant cluster) and lengthen the final vowel. An example of the vocative is in the sentence "mhysä, tulir." - "mother, come here." *'Comitative '- To mark the accompaniment of an action. A noun in the comitative ends in '''-zh' '''regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the comitative, drop the final consonant (or consonant cluster), lengthen the final vowel and add '-zh'. An example of the comitative is in the sentence "ä matid ''qimjäzh än." - "I ate with my cat." *'Privative '- To mark the lack of a noun in respect to a verb. A noun in the privative ends in '-dwez' 'regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the privative, drop the final consonant (or consonant cluster), and add '-dwez. An example of the privative is in the sentence "ä suwis ghiraudwez." - "I am riding without my saddle." *'Locative '- To express an indefinite location, somewhere "at," "near" or "around" the subject. A noun in the locative ends in '-m' 'regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the locative, drop the final consonant (or consonant cluster) and add '-m. An example of the locative is in the sentence "ï hine gwanjid i opedom." - "the children played near the house." *'Abessive '- To express an action is not done near a place or object. A noun in the abessive ends in '-bwyl' a vowel''' regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the abessive, drop the final consonant (or consonant cluster) and add '''-bwyl. Furthermore, to express an action taking place far away from a place or object (for emphasis on the distance), the "y" is lengthened to give the ending '-bwÿl'. An example of the abessive is in the sentence "ï hine gwanjid i opebwyl." - "the children played away from the house." *'Allative' ''-''' To express the noun motioning towards something. A noun in the allative ends in -'ëq '''regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the allative, the final vowel and final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-ëq'. An example of the allative is in the sentence "i valor tjanis ''opedëq." - "the man is walking towards a house." *'''Ablative ''-'' To express the noun motioning away from something. Thus to inflect a noun for the ablative, the final vowel and final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with' -'ÿgh'''. An example of the ablative is in the sentence "ä belid i'alhÿgh." - "I moved away from the sea." *'Illative '- To express the noun motioning into something. Thus to inflect a noun for the illative, the final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-nwes'. An example of the illative is in the sentence "i shigwën tjanid ïslynwes." - "the dark-looking girl walking into the mist." *'Elative' ''- ''To express the noun motioning out of something. A noun in the elative ends in ''-'sh '''regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the elative, the final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-sh. An example of the elative is in the sentence "i vala tjanis opedosh." - "the woman walked out of the house." *'Inessive' - To express that a noun is located within something. The inessive is also used to determine the position of a noun at specific points in time. A noun in the inessive ends in '-ms '''regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the inessive, the final consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-ms'. An example of the inessive is in the sentence "ä thonid nwynal ''aurams." - "I saw a girl at sunset." *'Enessive' - To express that a noun is on top of something. A noun in the enessive ends in'' ''-iuq 'regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the enessive for earth, wind and water nouns, the ending '-iuq 'is placed after the final consonant, and for fire nouns the final vowel is replaced with the ending '-iuq. An example of the enessive is in the sentence "mhebyn telhorid hanoriuq ''eär" - "a bird landed ''on top of my hand." *'Enlative '- To express that a noun has motioned onto another object. A noun inflect for the enlative has an ending of '-wert '''regardless of gender. Thus the final vowel and consonant (or consonant cluster) must be dropped and replaced with '-wert'. An example of the enlative is in the sentence "lasur qantjid ''hanwert." - "a leaf fell onto my hand." *'Delative - '''To express a noun has motioned off of another object. A noun in the delative ends in '-juz regardless of gender. Thus to inflect a noun for the delative, '''-juz is added to the final consonant for earth, air and water nouns, and the final vowel is removed and replaced with '-juz '''for fire nouns. An example of the delative is in the sentence "i nwyna bhandid ''ghiraudjuz nwo." - "the girl came down off of her saddle." *'Diminutive - '''A root modifying case used express the smallness of a noun. To create the diminutive form of a noun, remove the final consonant (or consonant cluster) and add '-shï''' to the end of the noun. An example is the word for cat in Emülas is "qimja" yet the word for kitten is "qimjashï." -wed, -iqne, -er, -t Number Article Verb Aspect Tense Mood Number Adjective Pronoun Lexicon 'silman '- star 'adhor '- tree